There s Fun to Be Done!

Transcription

1 There s Fun to Be Done! [Thing One!] Oh The Places He Went! Yes, there really was a Dr. Seuss. He was not an official doctor, but his prescription for fun has delighted readers for more than 60 years. Theodor Seuss Geisel ( Ted ) was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brewmasters (made beer) and enjoyed great financial success for many years. Coupling the continual threats of Prohibition (making and drinking alcohol became illegal) and World War I (where the US and other nations went to war with Germany and other nations), the German-immigrant Geisels were targets for many slurs, particularly with regard to their heritage and livelihoods. In response, they were active participants in the pro-america campaign of World War I. Thus, Ted and his sister Marnie overcame such ridicule and became popular teenagers involved in many different activities. Despite some financial hardship due to Prohibition, Ted enjoyed a fairly happy childhood. His parents were strict, but very loving. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, had worked in her father s bakery before marrying Ted s father, often memorizing the names of the pies that were on special each day and chanting them to her customers. If Ted had difficulty getting to sleep, she would often recall her pie-selling chants. As an adult, Ted credited his mother for the rhythms in which I write and the urgency with which I do it. Dartmouth If you ve never seen a photograph of Dr. Seuss, you probably picture him as a young child or a grandfatherly Did You Know? The proper pronunciation of Seuss is actually Zoice (rhymes with voice ), being a Bavarian name. However, due to the fact that most Americans pronounced it incorrectly as Soose, Geisel later gave in and stopped correcting people, even quipping (joking) the mispronunciation was a good thing because it is advantageous for an author of children s books to be associated with Mother Goose. The character of the Cat in Cat in the Hat and the Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas were inspired by himself. For instance, with the Grinch: I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noted a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! Something had gone wrong with Christmas, I realized, or more likely with me. So I wrote the story about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I d lost. Geisel s car s license plate read GRINCH On what made him so successful, Geisel stated: I don t write for children. I write for people. Or, as he once told an interviewer, I think I can communicate with kids because I don t try to communicate with kids. Ninety percent of the children s books patronize the child and say there s a difference between you and me, so you listen to this story. I, for some reason or another, don t do that. I treat the child as an equal. 1

2 gentleman. You may not have considered his robust years as a college student. Ted attended Dartmouth College and by all accounts was a typical, mischievous college student. According to Judith and Neil Morgan, co-authors of Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel and personal friends of his, Ted grew to respect the academic discipline he discovered at Dartmouth not enough to pursue it, but to appreciate those who did. He worked hard to become the editor-in-chief of Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth s humor magazine. His reign as editor came to an abrupt end when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a party that did not coincide with school policy. Geisel continued to contribute to Jack-O, merely signing his work as Seuss. This is the first record of his using the pseudonym Seuss. Oxford Graduation from Dartmouth was approaching, and Ted s father asked the question all college students dread: what was Ted going to do after college? Ted claimed to have been awarded a fellowship to Oxford University and the elder Geisel reported the news to the Springfield paper, where it was published the following day. Ted confessed the truth Oxford had denied his fellowship application and Mr. Geisel, who had a great deal of family pride, managed to scrape together funds to send him anyway. Ted left for Oxford intending to become a professor (he couldn t think of anything else to do with an Oxford education). It would be the first of many turning points in his career. Sitting in his Anglo-Saxon for Beginners class, his doodling caught the eye of a fellow American student named Helen Palmer. Helen suggested that he should become an artist instead of a professor. He took her advice and eventually, he took her hand in marriage as well. Judge, Standard Oil / Advertising Marriage and career, however, did not come quickly. Ted needed to earn a living before he could think of a life with Helen. He decided that he could make a living as a cartoonist, and was thrilled when one of his submissions was published in The Saturday Evening Post. His work caught the eye of the editor forjudge, a New York weekly, and Ted was offered a staff position. Standard Oil recognized Ted s talent or at the very least, his obsession with Flit, the pesticide Standard was manufacturing at the time and offered him a job in their advertising department. Flit s competitor, Fly-Tox, offered Ted a similar contract and in true Ted Geisel form, he flipped a coin to make the decision. As a result, the phrase Quick, Henry, the Flit! was introduced into the American vernacular (language). In all, Ted spent over 15 years in advertising, primarily with Standard. 2

3 World War II While Ted was not an advocate of war, he knew that war against Japan and Germany was imminent. Ted contributed anywhere from three to five urgent political cartoons each week to the popular front tabloid newspaper PM. Despite the steady work from PM, however, Ted wanted to contribute more to the war effort. (His art can been seen in the book Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel by Richard H. Minear) At 38, Ted was too old for the draft, so he sought a commission with naval intelligence. Instead, he wound up serving in Frank Capra s Signal Corps (U.S. Army) making movies relative to the war effort. He was introduced to the art of animation and developed a series of animated training films, which featured a trainee called Private Snafu. At first, many balked at the idea of a cartoon training series, but the younger recruits really responded to them. The Private Snafu assignments that Ted oversaw included scripts set to rhyme. Although the United States Army gave Walt Disney the first crack at creating the cartoons, Leon Schlesinger of the Warner Bros. animation studio underbid Disney by two-thirds and won the contract. Disney had also demanded exclusive ownership of the character, and merchandising rights. The goal was to help enlisted men with weak literacy skills learn through animated cartoons (and also supplementary comic books). Private Snafu did everything wrong, so that his negative example taught basic lessons about secrecy, disease prevention, and proper military protocols. Private Snafu cartoons were a military secret for the armed forces only. Surveys to ascertain the soldiers' film favorites showed that the Snafu cartoons usually rated highest or second highest. Each cartoon was produced in six weeks. (Please, do NOT look up any to show to students, the intended audience was military men (not children) and they featured simple language, racy illustrations, mild profanity, and subtle moralizing.) Ted also contributed to two Academy Award-winning films during his stint as a soldier. Few copies of the films under their original titles remain (Your Job in Germany and Your Job in Japan), and it is unknown as to whether any copies of the Oscar-winning remakes, Hitler Lives and Design for Death, respectively, exist. 3

4 Publishing Ted was still contributing cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair, Judge, etc., when an editor at Viking Press offered him a contract to illustrate a collection of children s sayings and jokes. While the book received bland reviews, Ted s illustrations were highly praised; he considered the opportunity his first, official big break in children s literature and another turning point in his career. By this time, there was no question that Ted could make a living as an illustrator and cartoonist but he also enjoyed writing. Over seventy-five years ago now, before he rocked the culinary world with green eggs and ham or put a red-and-white striped top hat on a talking cat, Geisel was stuck on a boat, the luxury liner Kungsholm, returning from a trip to Europe with his wife, Helen. For eight days, he listened to the ship's engine chug away. The sound got stuck in his head, and at Helen s urging, he applied the incessant rhythm to his first children s book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. Though Mulberry Street is a delightful peek into the vivid imagination of a child, publishers in 1937 were not receptive; in fact, Ted presented his manuscript to 27 publishing houses and received 27 rejections. Discouraged and about to give up, he literally bumped into a friend... who had just become an editor at a publishing house in the children's section," McLain explains. Geisel told the friend that he'd simply given up and planned to destroy the book, but the editor asked to take a look. It was a moment that changed Geisel's life. Geisel later said if he had been walking down the other side of the street, he probably would never have become a children's author. His friend offered to take the manuscript and illustrations to show them to key decision-makers. Vanguard wound up publishing Mulberry Street, which was well received by librarians and reviewers. But why Mulberry Street? Turns out, it's a real-life street in Geisel's hometown. It was a street very close to his grandparents' bakery," Guy McLain, a home-town expert on Seuss, says. "And I think also... it was the rhythm, the sound of the word that was very important with Dr. Seuss. Because there's nothing special about the street, really." Except for the fact that the ordinary little street launched one extraordinary career. After reading the book have a discussion of the 4

5 three basic story elements: Character, Setting, and Plot. Who? Where? What happened? Then talk about hyperbole, or outrageous suggestion/exaggeration. Did the students see any hyperbole in the story? (There is also an audio version with sound effects available at and a read-aloud of the first part of the book (from the Seuss app) at Have students compare and contrast while exploring matching texts stories and the movies adapted from them to develop their analytical strategies. Have them draw comparisons between the two texts and hypothesize about the effect of adaptation. They analyze the differences between the two versions by citing specific adaptations in the film version, indicating the effect of each adaptation on the story, and deciding if they felt the change had a positive effect on the overall story.) Many people have trouble understanding how to be creative or how other people are creative. Substitution of elements is a classic writing technique. In, And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, the structure of that process is elegantly displayed. First, you replace one element. Then you see if that helps you see a way to create a related replacement of another element. Then what does that suggest? And on it goes. Soon, there is no obvious link back to the beginning, but you have created something wonderful that would have been hard to do from a blank sheet of paper. And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street demonstrates how children can "stretch" their own imagination. The technique is simple and one even very young children can practice and enjoy. Story Stretching Stretches Your Mind and Body! Story stretching involves taking an ordinary scene and exaggerating first one element and then another, until the whole situation is really outlandish and silly. If you start with a wagon being pulled by a horse, for example, the horse can become a zebra, and the wagon something more elaborate until step by step it becomes one of those strange Seussian contraptions with big and little wheels, and umbrellas in odd places, a blend of realistic elements and exaggerations. To have students see (and act out) how this writing process might happen, put all the students in a circle, or a long line. One player starts a little gesture, with or without a little sound. The next player takes it over and makes it bigger. The last player does the whole thing to the extreme. Tips: Make sure the players stick to the original gesture/sound, and don`t just do their own thing. We should be able to see the movement grow organically. A common form of stretched story is a "fish story" that might be told by a fisherman who wants to exaggerate a bit about the struggle he had in catching the fish or about the size or fierceness of the fish he caught. Have students ever heard any fish stories or hunting stories that were exaggerated? (It would be helpful to find a fun book that shows this style of storytelling and illustrates this idea in an entertaining way, ex. Steamboat Annie and the 5

6 Thousand-Pound Catfish by Catherine Wright, You Don t Always Get What You Hope For by Rick Walton, or Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs, amongst many others.) Options: Display images of various fish and invite students to brainstorm ways one might exaggerate the features of the fish. In a fun public speaking activity, have students compose a "fish story" like Annie s in their minds and then tell it to a friend. Spin a Class "Yarn": Gather students into a circle and unwind a ball of yarn so that each student is holding a part of the yarn. Next, holding the ball of yarn, say the first line of a stretched tale or fish story, such as, "It was well known in these parts that Betty June could swim across a whole lake on a single breath..." and then pass the ball to the next person in the circle. As each student winds his or her length of yarn around the ball, he or she should add a line to the story. Repeat until everyone has had a chance to help tell the class's tall tale and the yarn has been once again wrapped around the ball. Oh, the thinks you can think! His next career turning point was in response to Rudolf Flesch s book, Why Johnny Can t Read (1955), and John Hersey s LIFE magazine article, Why Can t My Child Read? (1954). The premise for both article and book was that children s books were boring. Hersey was outraged with the current primers, calling them antiseptic and the children in them unnaturally clean. He thought the famous Dick and Jane primers were insanely boring and considered Fun with Dick and Jane, anything but fun. Because kids weren't interested in the material, they weren't exactly compelled to use it repeatedly in their efforts to learn to read and weren t inspired to want to read outside of what they are required. They called for illustrations that widen rather than narrow the associative richness the children give to the words, and concluded that the work of artists like Geisel and Walt Disney would be more appropriate. As a response to this, William Spaulding, director of Houghton Mifflin s educational division, challenged Geisel to write a story that first-graders can t put down and asked that it be limited to 225 distinct words from a list of 348 words that were selected from a standard first grader s vocabulary list (words a 6 year old child should know). Geisel nearly succeeded, using 236 unique words in the story, though the endeavor took him nine months largely due to the word restriction. In an unusual act of sharing an author, Houghton Mifflin and Random House asked Ted to write a children s primer using 220 new-reader vocabulary words (words a 6 year old should know); the end result was The Cat in the Hat. Houghton Mifflin reserved textbook rights and Random House reserved retail/trade rights. While schools were hesitant to adopt it as an official primer, children and parents swarmed for copies. The original story itself was supposed to be about a King cat and a Queen cat, but queen wasn t on the list of acceptable words. Geisel then looked through the list of words and spotted hat, which obviously 6

7 rhymed with cat, so decided to make a story out of that instead. So, The Cat in the Hat was born. "I have great pride in taking Dick and Jane out of most school libraries," he said. "That is my greatest satisfaction." The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957 and went on to sell around one million copies in the first three years after being published, allowing Geisel to stop working in advertising and to focus on writing children s books. With his books, he not only wanted to help kids learn to read in an enjoyable way, but he also wanted to teach them how to think, which he felt was particularly important as he stated: Children s reading and children s thinking are the rock-bottom base upon which this country will rise. Or not rise. In these days of tension and confusion, writers are beginning to realize that books for children have a greater potential for good or evil than any other form of literature on Earth. Though Ted s road to children s books had many twists and turns, The Cat in the Hat catapulted him from pioneer in children s literature to definitive children s book author/illustrator, a position he has held unofficially for many decades since. Secret Art? It may be helpful to have a book to explore with students in relation to this section such as, The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss by Theodor Geisel (Illustrator), Maurice Sendak (Introduction). As you explore the book be sure to have students discuss the similarities and differences between the Secret Art and the illustrations you see in his books. The collection of birds, cats, lions, and pointy-headed people is fairly familiar territory for any true Seuss fan, but with a deeper amount of detail and more sophisticated tones. It's easy to see Seuss didn't find art to be a serious business, but also that Geisel was serious about his art. And could the oil painting "Cat from the Wrong Side of the Tracks" be a rendition of Cat in the Hat's evil twin? A doodler at heart, Ted often remarked with a twinkle in his eye that he never really learned to draw. His school notebooks often included bizarre creatures that framed sporadic notes he had taken in class. For over 60 years, Dr. Seuss s illustrations brought a visual realization to his fantastic and imaginary worlds. However, his artistic talent went far beyond the printed page. Beyond Dr. Seuss's work for children is an entirely different world--perhaps similar in whimsy and humor, but even more wondrous, as in his Secret Art works the paintings and sculptures (including his Collection of Unorthodox Taxidermy- hand-painted cast resin sculptures of strange imaginary creatures which often incorporated real animal parts) he did at night for himself that he rarely exhibited during his lifetime, though on rare occasions throughout his lifetime, Ted Geisel sporadically gifted some of his secret artwork to friends or close colleagues. Seuss always dreamed of sharing these works with his fans and had entrusted his wife, Audrey, to carry out his wishes once he was gone. Audrey, too, believed the work deserved further recognition and that Ted himself would one day be evaluated not only as an author, but also as an artist in his own right. 7

8 Depicting outlandish creatures in otherworldly settings, the paintings use a dazzling rainbow of hues not seen in the primary-color palette of his books for children, and exhibit a sophisticated and often quite unrestrained side of the artist. In 1997, this dream was realized when The Art of Dr. Seuss project was launched. For the first time in history, collectors were able to see and acquire lithographs, serigraphs and sculptures reproduced from Geisel s original drawings and paintings. In her introduction to the collection Audrey Geisel wrote, I remember telling Ted that there would come a day when many of his paintings would be seen and he would thus share with his fans another facet of himself his private self. That day has come. I am glad. This historic project has opened the world s eyes to the unique artistic talent of Dr. Seuss and, as such, galleries, museums and collectors have helped make Audrey Geisel s promise, and Dr. Seuss s dream, a reality. Now, nearly 20 years after Ted passed away, these artworks have toured to leading galleries and museums across the world, establishing Seuss as a significant artist of the 20th century. Today prints and sculptures of Dr. Seuss artworks are found at galleries alongside the works of Warhol, Rembrandt, Picasso and Miró, among others. When Ted needed to clear his thoughts or relieve creative block, he often took an afternoon walk through his garden. Ted considered gardening and tending to his trees other art forms altogether, and his work in this media created a soft, pastoral setting. According to Ted, however, his greatest work wasn t a particular book or lavish gardens. Ted considered his greatest contribution to be the Lion Wading Pool at Wild Animal Park in San Diego, which he donated around Wild Wall Creatures Materials: Paper Pencils Erasers Modeling Clay Newspaper, cardboard, and/or wire for support structures Seuss books for inspiration Optional: Circle magnets, or sticky back magnets Have students dream up, create in sketch form, and then sculpt their own wild These are copyrighted characters and sculptures created by Dr. Seuss- Theodore Geisel. Property of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, all rights reserved. This image is being used to explain an editorial point and no claim to ownership of this photograph or its contents is being made. 8

9 character/animal with Seuss-like silly characteristics that they could wall-mount in miniature, ex. on their refrigerators with magnets. Have students look through Seuss books for inspiration for their own art and then come up with something that s 100% them, in honor of him! (You can be inspired by another without stealing from them.) Students should come up with a name and describe their creature s habitat, life-cycle (ex. is it a mammal that s born from an egg?) eating habits, explain how it would acquire food, water, and air and other characteristics. Have students work to describe their new creation using vivid adjectives and adverbs and in rhyme, in a Seuss-like manner! Ex. She's a Bird Nesting Head Moose, a rare piney wood treat. She carries bird eggs in her horns till they re up, up on their feet! She smells like the juice of the sweet maple gum bush and if you re too noisy she ll bellow hush-hush! Helen Palmer Geisel Helen Palmer and Ted Geisel were classmates at Oxford University. It was Helen who first suggested to Ted that he draw for a living. While Helen was a tremendous support editorially, artistically, and administratively during much of Ted s career, she herself was an accomplished author. One of her books, Do You Know What I m Going To Do Next Saturday?, was listed as one of the best juveniles by The New York Times in Along with Ted and Phyllis Cerf, Helen was also a founder of Beginner Books, a young reader s division of Random House Children s Books. Later in life, Helen suffered from frail health, including cancer. She died on October 23, The Tower / Writing Habits In 1948, Ted and Helen had purchased an old observation tower in La Jolla (la-hoy-yah), California. The Tower, as it soon became known, was to remain the primary Geisel residence for the remainder of their lives. It was here that Ted worked his creative magic, locked in the studio within The Tower for at least eight hours each day and very often, much longer than that. 9

10 Janet Schulman, now semi-retired but continues her role as Vice President of Random House Books for Young Readers, admits that Ted s actual writing process was a bit of a mystery: He was so private about it, she explains. When he was working on a book, he always had a general idea of what the book was going to be; but he put these pieces of paper on the wall, and there would be holes within the sequence that usually belonged to the transition points. Others recall Ted pulling a thinking cap from his amazing hat collection and wearing it to help lighten the stress of creative blocks. However he managed to do it, there s no discrepancy that he did it well. He was absolutely no trouble, he didn t pester you like some authors can do, and he enjoyed both critical and commercial success, Schulman reflects. I miss him terribly there will never be another Dr. Seuss. Incidentally, the question Ted dreaded most was the question he was asked most often: where do you get your ideas? He usually responded with some sort of quip (joke), most often Uber Gletch. This was Ted s own private joke Uber Gletch was actually the Swiss town where he traveled annually to have his cuckoo clock repaired. Later Years: Audrey Geisel Audrey and Ted had been friends for a long time before they married on June 21, 1968, after his first wife, Helen s death. Audrey brought order and stability at a time when Ted s popularity was pulling him in a variety of directions. Life with Audrey brought a sense of freshness and renewal to Ted; he became more social and more active in his community. The Geisels were excellent hosts, holding weekly dinner parties that included extensive and varied guest lists. These parties often took on lives of their own; Ted s penchant for funny hats, for example, would weave its way into a dinner party theme or two (and guests were expected to wear their funniest headgear or risk Ted assigning one from his personal collection of hundreds of hats was secretly stored in a closet, hidden behind a bookshelf in his home in San Diego!). Ted s interest in travel was also rejuvenated, and together he and Audrey traveled extensively. One of their more memorable adventures included a photo safari in Africa. Ted looked at the trees and exclaimed, They ve stolen my truffula trees! 10

11 This new spark certainly influenced Ted s work! Some of his most critically acclaimed and socially conscious books were written during this period, and Ted began experimenting with the color palette once again. Audrey would often suggest unexpected, unusual color combinations that complemented more meaningful manuscripts. And fortunately for us, we reap the rewards of their efforts; books such as The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book, and You re Only Old Once! are evidence of new challenges and risks that Ted was willing to take. Audrey a former nurse saw her role as that of a caretaker and chief supporter, a role she continues to this day as the head of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. At the time of Ted s death on September 24, 1991, some 200 million copies of his books, translated into 15 different languages, had found their way into homes and hearts around the world. Since then, sales continue to climb, estimated at more than 300 million since In addition, nearly 30 of Ted s Dr. Seuss books have been adapted for television or video. Shortly before his death, when Ted was asked if there was anything left unsaid, he pondered the question and finally responded: The best slogan I can think of to leave with the U.S.A. would be: We can... and we ve got to... do better than this. After devoting 53 years to creating entertaining and instructive books, the good Dr. Seuss taught all that he could teach. Ted Seuss Geisel passed away on September 24, 1991, at the age of 87. As permanent reminder to the reading public, the final line in Ted s final book (Oh, the Places You ll Go!) issues the following charge: You re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way! 11

12 Some of the hats 12

13 Green Eggs and Ham, Don t Let it Waste: What Doctor Seuss Knew about the Science of Taste Original article by Kyle Hill for Scientific American. Did you know that Dr. Seuss wrote scientifically accurate stories? It s ok Sam-I-Am, we know why you didn t want to try green eggs and ham. You didn t want to try it on a train or up a tree, because what we taste is influenced by what we see. Now, taste certainly involves the tongue, that s one of the first things we learn when we are young. But all your senses help you dine, and a great example is the taste of wine. Wine experts will surely say that taste is a must, they have spent years refining palates that are robust. But give them a white wine that has been dyed red, and they will have no idea it is white in their head. Wine sensors aren t the only perceptions loose, sight also affects the taste of juice. Give two groups identical juice, differently colored, and one group will tell you their taste buds have been smothered. And you may even think that you taste something small, when in fact your tongue detects almost nothing at all. When your water tastes like iron you may like it or not, but you have no iron taste buds, not in any spot. Instead it s your nose pulling the slack, being the sensors your tongue seems to lack. In fact, when you have a cold and your nose is stuffed, things start to taste like iron because your sense of smell has been snuffed. So you see, can t you tell? What you taste is actually your tongue, what we see, and what we smell. We are late to the game on how the brain perceives, so it s time to get it straight, time to roll up our sleeves. Marketers know that sight changes taste, it has let them know what we will waste. Think of Pepsi, a soda we hold dear, and what happened when they turned the soda clear. Times were good, times were light, until people realized the soda didn t taste quite right. 13

14 Sales plummeted as consumers stopped buying, and marketers knew there was no use in trying. Taste is a complicated perception, I will contend, and for Sam-I-Am I will defend. Think of a steak, sizzling with heat, doesn t that sound like something you d want to eat? Stop right there! This steak looks rather mean. Yes! That s right! This steak is green! How many stomachs turn at even the thought, thinking about a green steak that should have never been bought? You certainly wouldn t choose it from a cafeteria; we are accustomed to refuse things than look riddled with bacteria. If you can imagine what color does to taste, this little scam, you will know that the same is true for green eggs and ham. Dr. Seuss, we thank you, we must. For giving information about taste perception we can trust. Don t you just love scientifically accurate stories, especially about Sam Would you want to try green eggs and ham? More Than Meets the Tongue: Color of A Drink Can Fool The Taste Buds Into Thinking It Is Sweeter After reading Green Eggs and Ham with students (which can be compared and contrasted with the short animated video version available at A worksheet is available at the end of the unit. What do students learn from each? How are they similar? How are they different? Do they tell the same story? Have them draw comparisons between the two texts and hypothesize about the effect of adaptation. They analyze the differences between the two versions by citing specific adaptations in the film version, indicating the effect of each adaptation on the story, and deciding if they felt the change had a positive effect on the overall story.), this project examines whether people s perceptions of taste are influenced by their sight. We've all heard that the first bite is taken with the eye but the link between our visual sense and our flavor perception may be stronger than we think. When we think of flavor perception, noses and taste buds primarily spring to mind most of the time. Sure, other factors such as texture, temperature and touch sensations play a part, but taste and smell are the dominant senses here, right? Well perhaps not. Research Questions: Can the color of a food or drink affect a person s perception of its taste? or Can our eyes fool our taste buds? Materials Lemon gelatin (one batch yellow, one batch orange, one batch red) Food dyes Vanilla Pudding Clear flavoring extract (ex. lemon) 14

15 Clear flavored drinks Orange Juice Sugar Small cups Spoons Paper Pencils Run each of the following tests with your students without telling them beforehand and have them record their opinions while you record their results, this data will be used later during the discussion. Colored Gelatin-What Color Can You Taste? Pupils taste 3 separate batches of gelation, ex. Jello. One yellow, one orange and one red. Each time describing the flavor. Lemon Jello colored with varying amounts of red food dye seems to be the most effective. Orange Juice-Orange, Sweet Orange Have students taste orange juice and compare it with another sample of the exact same orange juice secretly dyed a deeper orange with food coloring. Do they note any flavor differences? Does one seem sweeter? Then, have students taste orange juice and compare it with another sample of the exact same orange juice secretly sweetened with sugar. Do they note any flavor differences? Does one seem sweeter? Clear Carbonation-Flavor You Can See! Pupils will then taste clear and food dye colored drinks once again describing their flavor, and writing down their opinions, before the actual flavor is revealed. There s always room for Gelatinous science! Gelatin is made from collagen, the elastic protein that holds the body together (i.e., tendons, skin, etc.) Collagen is made from three protein chains that wind around each other to form a helix, like the stripes on a barber's pole. In hot gelatin (that is, above 40C/104F), the chains are happy to remain separate, but once they are cooled below 40C/104F, they want to reform the barber's pole structure and so grab the nearest neighbor to form little bits of helix. However, the whole process is very haphazard, so that each chain is quickly involved in several different barbers' poles, with the result that the chains get stuck together. It is like a heap of those Slinky toys from back in the 1970s - all the chains are so interwoven that pulling on one pulls the whole heap. This, in essence, is a gel. Choosing a clear flavored drink and adding a variety of food colorings can produce a range of interesting results. Commonly pupils will be strongly influenced by other pupils suggested flavors and a peer effect can be very strong. 15

16 Black food coloring can also be purchased and added to lemonade or other clear fruit flavored drinks, while pupils are asked to suggest the brand of cola. The power of branding, advertising and anticipation will also be discussed with this activity. Puzzling Pudding Researchers have found that when tasteless yellow coloring is added to vanilla pudding, consumers say it tastes like banana or lemon pudding. And when mango or lemon flavoring is added to white pudding, most consumers say that it tastes like vanilla pudding. Test this with your students without telling them beforehand and have them record their opinions while you record their results, this data will be used later during the discussion. Experimental Procedure: 1. With the food coloring, dye one batch of gelatin red and one batch of gelatin orange. 2. Dye your chosen clear flavored drinks 3. Put out portions of each kind of Jello, this may be easiest if you make it into Jigglers 4. Pour a couple of inches of juice into each cup so that you have sample cups of each kind of dyed juice, 1 for each student. 5. Place one cup of each color of juice in front of a test subject. 6. Ask your students to taste, ex. the red juice, and tell you what flavor it is. 7. Ask your students to taste the next juice, ex. green and tell you what flavor it is. 8. Ask your subject to taste the uncolored juice and tell you what flavor it is. 9. Record their answers. 10. Repeat steps 3 to 7 for all of your substances 11. Analyze your results. Did the color of the juice affect your subjects perceptions of their flavors? Did people mis-identify the flavors in keeping with the colors. (For example: Did they think the red juice tasted like fruit punch or cherry?) 16

17 The flavor purple Modern & trendy colorful new eclairs- fancified with trendy flavors and inventive toppings and, most notably, bold bright colors! that would make Crayola proud. It seems worthwhile to ponder how color is used to represent innovation and newness, especially in the food world. Of course color is important elsewhere. Namely in the fashion world depending on the season or designer, the hot look is either bright colors, no color, or a particular color; and, in the tech/gadget industry, as usually monochromatic phones and gadgets get covered in bright plastic colors, or more expensive selections of metallic colors. But back to food. Considering that often the colors of an edible object are one of the first ways in which we not only recognize it, connect to our own memories and experiences, and decide if we, in fact, want to consume it, it may be a bit surprising that any culinary team or company (of one, or many) ventures to mess with color at all! Especially since it is far from predictable when an unusual color will work and when it will not work. Blastin Green (as well as Funky Purple, Stellar Blue, Passion Pink, Awesome Orange, Totally Teal, and even something labelled simply, "Mystery Color all achieved by stripping the red color from traditional Heinz ketchup and adding food coloring, Vitamin C, and tomato flavor ) absolutely did not fly for Heinz ketchup consumers in 2000 at a time when parents were becoming more and more cautious of artificial food colorings and its effects on kids' behavior and allergies, so it's no wonder EZ Squirt experienced a short shelf life. Or when Parkay tried Electric Blue and Shocking Pink colored 17

18 margarine that didn t spread very far people were too used to it s already dyed yellow natural state. Conversely, lack of color is also off-putting, or at least, not very lucrative as Pepsi found when they introduced the world to Crystal Pepsi, a soda without food coloring that no one was willing to drink. But why? Are we simply slaves to the intersection of tradition, custom, and current trends (be they global or social or cultural)? Does orange juice taste really sweeter if it's a brighter orange? A study in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research found that the color of a drink can influence how we think it tastes. In fact, the researchers found that color was more of an influence on how taste was perceived than quality, amount of sugar, or price information. Taste sits far below with sound and texture and touch. "Half the brain is visual in some sense," says a researcher, "versus just a few per cent for overall taste senses. So in cortical real estate, vision is always going to win." This is in part why the color of our food and drink can not only determine whether it is appetizing, but its flavor, too. Some people ask if we really need food coloring at all. While there's one argument, which says that if you're eating food that needs to be colored, you're not eating food, but, on the other side, some people are wondering why the same products can't be made without food coloring. Apparently, those people aren't aware of just how much color impacts taste. According to research color can more or less override our tastebuds. Hoegg and Alba were the first to look at how individual attributes -- such as color, price, or brand -- can affect which products we prefer. The researchers manipulated orange juice by changing color (with food coloring), sweetness (with sugar), or by labeling the cups with Feeling Pink? Here s a fun did you know? and no, we re not talking about the pink Parkay in the picture below! Back in the 1870s and 1880s, in an attempt to restrict the sale of margarine even more than their taxes and labeling laws, they forced manufactures to add pink coloring to margarine. The idea was that the pink would make it unpalatable and less desirable, and therefore, discourage people from buying margarine instead of butter. The color bans started in big dairy states like New York and New Jersey (no surprise, right?) and even created an entire underground market for bootleg colored margarine (yes, that was a real thing) and food coloring capsules so that consumers could knead in the yellow color into their margarine to make it look more like butter again. Between the color rules and the taxes, it cut margarine sales down immensely (to about 40% of their previous sales). Eventually the Supreme Court jumped in and overturned the laws, but as many as 80% of Americans didn t have access to yellow margarine (oh no!). Fast forward a little more than a century and Parkay actually intentionally released the colored Fun Squeeze versions of margarine above in hopes of making it MORE desirable and fun, so that people would be more likely to buy it. Everything cycles back around eventually, huh? 18

19 brand and quality information. They found that though brand name influenced people's preferences for one cup of juice over another, labeling one cup a premium brand and the other an inexpensive store brand had no effect on perceptions of taste. What were your students results? In contrast, the tint of the orange juice had a huge effect on the taster's perceptions of taste. As the authors put it: "Color dominated taste." Given two cups of the same Tropicana orange juice, with one cup darkened with food coloring, the members of the researcher's sample group perceived differences in taste that did not exist. What were your students results? However, when given two cups of orange juice that were the same color, with one cup sweetened with sugar, the same people failed to perceive taste differences. What were your students results? In an different experiment with "uncolored" Cheetos Crunchy Cheese Flavored snacks, apparently, the bland color matched people's feelings about the taste: Their fingers did not turn orange. And their brains did not register much cheese flavor, even though the Cheetos tasted just as they did with food coloring. "People ranked the taste as bland and said that they weren't much fun to eat," said Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell University and director of the university's Food and Brand Lab. Tests in the other direction also had a similar impact. Seeing a different color than is actually the flavor can make that flavor seem apparent: When tasteless yellow coloring is added to vanilla pudding, consumers say it tastes like banana or lemon pudding. And when mango or lemon flavoring is added to white pudding, most consumers say that it tastes like vanilla pudding. What were your students results? "It seems unlikely that our consumers deliberately eschewed taste for color as a basis for discrimination," write the authors of the first study. "Moreover, our consumers succumbed to the influence of color but were less influenced by the powerful lure of brand and price information." Some researchers say, how color affects appetite is inconsistent, contextual and, directly related to experience, expectations, associations, cultural norms and fashions. Think about green food and you might picture fresh, nutritious apples, lettuce, or cucumbers. Or perhaps under-ripe, sour fruits. However: If we talk about bright green meat (green eggs or ham anyone?), your stomach probably turns. 19

20 It is interesting, though, that a dyed-blue steak will have the same effect, even if you know it's perfectly safe. If you get people to eat it in the dark, says one researcher, "so they think it's normal, then you turn the lights up and show them the color, some will get up and be sick straight away. Such is the powerfully aversive effect of food color out of context whether it is green eggs and ham or blue ketchup. What might this research mean for food companies? Ex. Might this encourage them to add less flavoring or use less flavorful ingredients and add more food coloring? What about for consumers? What about to you? Reference: Hoegg, JoAndrea, and Joseph W. Alba. "Taste Perception: More Than Meets the Tongue," Journal of Consumer Research: March Will You Try Green Eggs and Ham? Make real green eggs and ham with students! For example, make green scrambled eggs in the microwave. Do they like it, like Pop, or do they say The yolk is cooked! I m craving pork, I grab a napkin, knife, and fork. And I then learn in stark reality, Just why green eggs and ham can t be That crazy science up there was right, Because I cannot take a bite. I cannot eat green eggs and ham. They look disgusting, Sam I Am! Use charts to graph student responses to the following questions (for all variations): Do you think you will like green eggs and ham? Would you like to try green eggs and ham? Did you like green eggs and ham? 20

21 "Pork is a nice, sweet meat." Now for two sweeter versions of the Seussian signature dish that spun the culinary for a loop on the color wheel. I will eat them in the car I will eat them going far I will eat these green eggs and ham Thank you, thank Sam I Am! Stick pretzels White chocolate or white candy melts I do so LIKE green eggs and ham! Recipe, photos, and instructions by The Pink Apron blog. Copyright All Rights Reserved. These call for only three ingredients: Green M&Ms 1. Start by laying out bunches of three pretzels on a sheet of wax paper. This represents bacon, which is our ham portion of the green eggs and ham. 2. Now melt the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, stirring after each 30 seconds until the chocolate is melted. 3. Dollop about a tsp of chocolate in the middle of the pretzels, covering all three. This is the white of the egg. 4. Now for the green part! Put two green M&Ms on top, Ms down (which doesn t always happen when the kids are in charge of this part), gently on the white chocolate. These are the green yolks. That s it! Now just let them set (in the fridge if possible, otherwise it may take a bit longer). One 11- ounce bag of white chocolate chips makes about 52 treats. Mini Green Eggs and Ham Recipe, photos, and instructions by Lindsey Ann s Dollhouse Bakeshop. Copyright All Rights Reserved. You can use these as cupcake toppers or simply serve them on a little plate. Materials Green Apple "laffy taffy" White chocolate chips, melted Green M&M's 21

22 Edible black markers (or black food coloring and toothpicks) Directions Assemble Ham - Microwave green taffy candy for just a few seconds until pliable and mold into a curved cone shape. (You can use taffy, Airheads, or any green candy that is moldable.) - Dab a dot of melted white chocolate (or tiny piece of marshmallow) for the white dot in the center of the ham. - Draw on cartoon details with edible black marker (or black food coloring and a fine tip paintbrush/toothpick). Assemble Eggs - Melt some white chocolate according to instructions on package and spoon "egg shaped blobs" onto a piece of wax paper. - Place a green M&M in the center while chocolate is still wet. - Once dry, draw on cartoon details with edible black marker (or black food coloring and a fine tip paintbrush/toothpick). Try to Be Thrifty and Only Use 50! Can students write a book, or at least a fun story, using only 50 words? In 1960 Bennett Cerf, the co- founder of Random House, and Dr. Seuss editor, bet him $50 (about $382 today) that he couldn't write entertaining children's book using only 50 different words, or less. The Cat in the Hat was pretty simple, after all, and it used 225 unique words. Not one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel started writing and came up with Green Eggs and Ham which uses exactly 50 words. There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager. To prepare to write Dr. Seuss read the list of easy words over and over again, but it wasn t coming so easily. He was having a really hard time working with so few words! He almost gave up, but then one day he read the list again, one last time, and the first two words that rhymed? That became his title, The Cat in the Hat. Then he drew a picture of a cat in a tall skinny striped hat, like one he had in his collection. The story started to fall into place! It took him over a year to write and draw the story The Cat in the Hat. The story was easy to read, but even more importantly, it made learning to read fun. Dr. Seuss said writing kids books was work! A lot more work than most people would think. 22

23 Despite Dr. Seuss, a.k.a. Theodore Geisel, winning the bet by producing one of his most popular works Green Eggs and Ham using exactly 50 unique words, Cerf never paid up. Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss's works and one of the best-selling children's books in history. Fun Fact: At the 1985 Princeton University Commencement Exercises, as Geisel accepted an honorary degree, the graduates stood and recited in unison the entire text of Green Eggs and Ham. The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. (And only one of which, anywhere, has more than one syllable.) At first glance, you might think this was a lucky fluke. A talented author plays a fun game with 50 words and ends up producing a hit. But there is actually more to this story and the lessons in it can help us become more creative and stick to better habits over the long run. Here's what we can learn from Dr. Seuss... The Power of Constraints What Dr. Seuss discovered through this little bet was the power of setting constraints. Setting limits for yourself -- whether that involves the time you have to work out, the money you have to start a business, or the number of words you can use in a book -- often delivers better results than "keeping your options open." In fact, Dr. Seuss found that setting some limits to work within was so useful that he employed this strategy for other books as well. For example, The Cat in the Hat was written using only a first-grade vocabulary list (words which a 6 year-old should know.) 1. Constraints inspire your creativity. If you're 5-foot-5-inches tall and you're playing basketball, you figure out more creative ways to score than the 6-foot-5-inch guy. If school and work takes up almost every minute of your day and you want to get fit, you figure out more creative ways to get some exercise. If you're a photographer and you show up to a shoot with just one lens, 23